Beautiful India..Bert and Anita (T's brother and his wife) just toured Rajasthan, taking a 1000 pictures in the process (which we all had to see when they came back...and actually that was a pleasure). They were not very rested, driving 3500 km, but I think they had a great time. I must say the "colourful India" msut have been derived from Rajasthan....the landscape is rather bland with its deserts but the people compensate with their colours.
Amongst other things we now have a great amount of tips on cities, hotels and places to see!
It was great having them over...great guests!

We are now preparing for a little vacation of our own, to Kerala. We wanted to go to a beach where they would have rest and good food, and we were looking at Bali, Thailand or the Maledives, but apart from the prices of tickets (quite high!) also travelling times were not very attractive...to bali we would have to travel for almost 2 days to reach our destination (not very practical when you can only leave for a week). So we finally decided to stay within India - after all we ARE living here - and go down south. We found a hotel in our little book ("Special places to stay") - it is on the beach, fresh seafood prepared in front of your table, ayurvedic massages available and our own little private cottage...what more could we possibly want?

Jahanpanah, Delhi's fourth city!
(kids in front of the Bijay Mandal, the Begumpur mosque, The Satpula Dam, inside the Kirkhi mosque)

On the 28th of february our group did its tour, starting at the Satpula dam (which used to be part of the Jahanpanah wall). It is quite an intreguing building - what can be seen from the streetside looks like the wall of a bastion, and the seven arches (Satpula = 7 arches) can only be seen from the other side. Behind the dam is a little wildlife sanctuary, unfortunately with a sewer opening up into it...fortunately our tour was not in summer for it would have smelled really bad then. From Satpula dam we walked to Khirki mosque, another hidden treasure. Khirki mosque is one of the two mosques in India that is covered, presumably to shield the faithful from the sun, but in fact dividing the prayer hall in little segments, which is probably why they didn't repeat this way of building.

After Khirki Mosque we went to the Bijay mandal, which is likely to have been the palace of Muhammad bin Tughluq, the sultan who build Jahanpanah. Muhammad was quite a charackter - brilliant, cruel, crazy...he moved Delhi's entire population to what is now Adilabad (three months on foot), only to have most of them die on the way. Those that didn't die perished once arrived as food and water were scarce. Those that refused to go were beheaded...and there are stories that the crippled people, for whom the trip would have been too far, were put in catapults and flung in the direction of Adilabad...Mohammad is said to have died of food poisening in 1351, but we suspect it was poison.

We concluded our tour at the Begumpur mosque, which lies in Begumpuri village (and actually hosted part of the village in the 19th century). Most of the monuments are being restored, and in India that means that you walk amidst the working peopleover rooftops that may crumble beneath you...but it does give you a sense of authenticity.

Kids are everywhere at those places, and the first thing they scream when the see you is "hello, money!". Glad that is clear then...I told them in my best Hindi that my name is not Money but Marja, but I doubt wether they cared...mr. Gill had to walk with us every time we went to study our monuments, to keep the kids away (not in the last place because they all look like they are full of lice, and Kate, my 7cities buddy, had just explained that she got lice from one of those begging kids when she had just arrived in India and it took her MONTHS to get rid of them...just the thought makes my head start itching).
Still, studying the monuments, their history, and the time they were build in (app 1325 - 1351) gives me a sense of how the city developed - all 7 cities tours are chronological so the city literally unfold before your eyes...fascinating! Worth all the work! I am meeting nice people as well, as the total 7 cities group consists of about every nationalit possible. One of my fellow-adventurers is from Korea and made me Kimchi...another is setting up an acupressure class which I am dying to attend and with Kate I go shopping...finaly my social life here starts to take shape!

Busy week...wednesday we had our 7cities presentation, and that involved a lot of work.

7cities is a program which was initiated by two american ladies, and it deals with the architectural highlights in Delhi's "7 cities" (Delhi was built in 7 stages in 7 different persiods of time, hence the 7 cities of Delhi). The larger group of app. 30 people is devided into smaller groups of 3-4 people, and each group is assigned a city of Delhi and a list of its monuments. The group is then meant to prepare a guided tour, a report and arrange a lunch. It is a great way to learn about the city and to get to know people and places. My group, consisting of Kate, Sue and me, had the fourth city of Delhi, Jahanpanah. More about that in a next blog.

Then I took Friend to the vet; Friend is Olly Kumar's friend, a tiny tabby stray cat, who now and then enters the house to eat Olly's food. About a month ago he started limping, and as he increasingly started to look scruffy and got thinner and thinner, we decided to catch him and take him to the vet. Well, it turned out that Friend lost a toe during battle and had an ulcer underneath his second toe, which caused the limping. As the ulcer wouldn't heal the vet suggested to take the toe off...so Friend was operated (and fixed) and is now living in our poolhouse until he is fully recovered. Mr. Gill likes Friend better than Oly, because he doesn't scream in the car, but I do think they all think it is strange that I would go through so much trouble for a stray cat. Well...if I cannot help the people of India, then I might as well try to help a cat.

Coming weekend it is Holi (the festival when they throw paint) and we are hoping that our personnel will not share the festivities with us by coming round to "decorate" us...we have been advised not to hit the streets as we are likely to become targets of paint-throwing drunken Indians, so we'll have a dinner party in the garden instead. No paint, just booze (that part of Holi we like)!